Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold..." *CLOSED*

Topics for the 2017 cover song tournament.

Round 1: Best Covered Song?

Poll ended at February 14 18, 7:36 am

Atlantic City
9
38%
The Man Who Sold the World
15
63%
 
Total votes: 24

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ghostrunner
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by ghostrunner »

stlouie_lipp wrote:
IMADreamer wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:
IMADreamer wrote:
Gashouse wrote:
IMADreamer wrote: It is incredible, yet here we are one of the most over rated artists of all time being covered by the most over rated artist of all time winning by double over one of the best songs of all time, written by one of the greatest, covered by one of the greatest.

This world makes no sense any more and I want off it.
Haven't voted yet nor looked at results nor paid attention to who submitted which song. When I read this, I wasn't sure which way you meant as I lean towards feeling like both Bowie and Bruce are overrated. not that I think they suck, but neither has really struck a chord with me.
Bowie is over rated and nirvana is the most over rated. I'm firmly in the camp that if Cobain were still alive their legacy would be significantly less.
Overrated in what way? I don't think many people say they were the greatest musicians. But I don't think it's possible to overstate the cultural significance of Nevermind and especially "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
I was there for the boom of grunge too, although I may have just been a year or two too young. Still my thought is that there were always better bands lyrically and musically that appeared at the same time. Soundgarden and Pearl Jam coming to mind obviously and on the tail end of grunge Rage Against the Machine. Those bands while being there at he beginning stuck around for decades and today while considered great don't get the praise of Nirvana. I still feel like that's because Kurt killed himself and so there is this "what could have been" thinking.

I also guess that the cynical old man in me says that it wasn't really this cultural boom, but more of that's what MTV and the big record companies decided they were going to cram down everyone's throat at the time. Kids liked it because they were told they should.

When I look back now at that era Nirvana just doesn't have that staying power to me that some of the other bands did.
I agree with this. I preferred Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, even Smashing Pumpkins to Nirvana. Their music didn't really age very well and you're right, Cobain killing himself is a big part why they are revered. But, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the single that launched it all and that was their song.
Grunge has lost a lot of appeal for me, but I can remember where I was standing the first time I heard that song. It was a huge breath of fresh air at the time. All those hair bands (which I hated) were still big and then a few months after that song they weren't. It's not like there wasn't other good stuff at the time like the Pixies and REM and whatever I was into, but there was something big about it and I just knew it was going to be huge. Guns and Roses kicked the door in a bit, but Nirvana knocked it down for good. I remember an MTV special where Tom Petty says essentially the same thing about Nirvana.

Ultimately it was fleeting and we ended up with Limp Bizkit and Korn a few years later, but at the time it was pretty great.

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IMADreamer
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by IMADreamer »

ghostrunner wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:
IMADreamer wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:
IMADreamer wrote:
Gashouse wrote:
IMADreamer wrote: It is incredible, yet here we are one of the most over rated artists of all time being covered by the most over rated artist of all time winning by double over one of the best songs of all time, written by one of the greatest, covered by one of the greatest.

This world makes no sense any more and I want off it.
Haven't voted yet nor looked at results nor paid attention to who submitted which song. When I read this, I wasn't sure which way you meant as I lean towards feeling like both Bowie and Bruce are overrated. not that I think they suck, but neither has really struck a chord with me.
Bowie is over rated and nirvana is the most over rated. I'm firmly in the camp that if Cobain were still alive their legacy would be significantly less.
Overrated in what way? I don't think many people say they were the greatest musicians. But I don't think it's possible to overstate the cultural significance of Nevermind and especially "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
I was there for the boom of grunge too, although I may have just been a year or two too young. Still my thought is that there were always better bands lyrically and musically that appeared at the same time. Soundgarden and Pearl Jam coming to mind obviously and on the tail end of grunge Rage Against the Machine. Those bands while being there at he beginning stuck around for decades and today while considered great don't get the praise of Nirvana. I still feel like that's because Kurt killed himself and so there is this "what could have been" thinking.

I also guess that the cynical old man in me says that it wasn't really this cultural boom, but more of that's what MTV and the big record companies decided they were going to cram down everyone's throat at the time. Kids liked it because they were told they should.

When I look back now at that era Nirvana just doesn't have that staying power to me that some of the other bands did.
I agree with this. I preferred Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, even Smashing Pumpkins to Nirvana. Their music didn't really age very well and you're right, Cobain killing himself is a big part why they are revered. But, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the single that launched it all and that was their song.
Grunge has lost a lot of appeal for me, but I can remember where I was standing the first time I heard that song. It was a huge breath of fresh air at the time. All those hair bands (which I hated) were still big and then a few months after that song they weren't. It's not like there wasn't other good stuff at the time like the Pixies and REM and whatever I was into, but there was something big about it and I just knew it was going to be huge. Guns and Roses kicked the door in a bit, but Nirvana knocked it down for good. I remember an MTV special where Tom Petty says essentially the same thing about Nirvana.

Ultimately it was fleeting and we ended up with Limp Bizkit and Korn a few years later, but at the time it was pretty great.

See I always thought GnR was really the F you to hair bands.

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ghostrunner
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by ghostrunner »

IMADreamer wrote:
ghostrunner wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:
IMADreamer wrote:
stlouie_lipp wrote:
IMADreamer wrote:
Gashouse wrote:
IMADreamer wrote: It is incredible, yet here we are one of the most over rated artists of all time being covered by the most over rated artist of all time winning by double over one of the best songs of all time, written by one of the greatest, covered by one of the greatest.

This world makes no sense any more and I want off it.
Haven't voted yet nor looked at results nor paid attention to who submitted which song. When I read this, I wasn't sure which way you meant as I lean towards feeling like both Bowie and Bruce are overrated. not that I think they suck, but neither has really struck a chord with me.
Bowie is over rated and nirvana is the most over rated. I'm firmly in the camp that if Cobain were still alive their legacy would be significantly less.
Overrated in what way? I don't think many people say they were the greatest musicians. But I don't think it's possible to overstate the cultural significance of Nevermind and especially "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
I was there for the boom of grunge too, although I may have just been a year or two too young. Still my thought is that there were always better bands lyrically and musically that appeared at the same time. Soundgarden and Pearl Jam coming to mind obviously and on the tail end of grunge Rage Against the Machine. Those bands while being there at he beginning stuck around for decades and today while considered great don't get the praise of Nirvana. I still feel like that's because Kurt killed himself and so there is this "what could have been" thinking.

I also guess that the cynical old man in me says that it wasn't really this cultural boom, but more of that's what MTV and the big record companies decided they were going to cram down everyone's throat at the time. Kids liked it because they were told they should.

When I look back now at that era Nirvana just doesn't have that staying power to me that some of the other bands did.
I agree with this. I preferred Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, even Smashing Pumpkins to Nirvana. Their music didn't really age very well and you're right, Cobain killing himself is a big part why they are revered. But, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the single that launched it all and that was their song.
Grunge has lost a lot of appeal for me, but I can remember where I was standing the first time I heard that song. It was a huge breath of fresh air at the time. All those hair bands (which I hated) were still big and then a few months after that song they weren't. It's not like there wasn't other good stuff at the time like the Pixies and REM and whatever I was into, but there was something big about it and I just knew it was going to be huge. Guns and Roses kicked the door in a bit, but Nirvana knocked it down for good. I remember an MTV special where Tom Petty says essentially the same thing about Nirvana.

Ultimately it was fleeting and we ended up with Limp Bizkit and Korn a few years later, but at the time it was pretty great.

See I always thought GnR was really the F you to hair bands.
They were in parallel. GNR debuted in 87 and hair bands were still coming out after that. "Teen Spirit" was '91 and pretty much ended them.

It's odd to think back on how those eras seemed to last forever, but hair bands were really only big for 4-5 years. That seems like nothing to me now.

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stlouie_lipp
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by stlouie_lipp »

Funny thing about Appetite for Destruction was that it came out summer 1987. I remember rocking out to it right as I became a freshman in high school. IIRC it didn't "chart" until a year later after they toured relentlessly but it was still mostly crowded out by hair bands (and unfairly lumped in with them). By then I was a sophomore and had moved on to It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and Straight Outta Compton. I mostly listened to rap as an alternative to the hair bands that dominated the charts. And then, bam! here came Nirvana.

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heyzeus
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by heyzeus »

I always figured Welcome to the Jungle was the first single from Appetite, since it was the first song/video I ever heard by them. But it was actually Sweet Child O' Mine.

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Jocephus
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by Jocephus »

IMADreamer wrote:

See I always thought GnR was really the F you to hair bands.
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stlouie_lipp
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by stlouie_lipp »

This thread got me thinking...Nevermind is closer in time to Sgt. Pepper's than it is to anything released after 2015.

[expletive], I'm old.

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ghostrunner
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by ghostrunner »

heyzeus wrote:I always figured Welcome to the Jungle was the first single from Appetite, since it was the first song/video I ever heard by them. But it was actually Sweet Child O' Mine.
This is part of the timeline lipp was talking about, if Im not mistaken. Sweet Child o Mine and the album as a whole was mostly ignored on release, then Jungle was a hit and they started running Sweet Child o Mine on MTV and radio after that.

EDIT - Wikipedia says we're both wrong and it was the third single. That feels wrong to me though.

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ghostrunner
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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold the World"

Post by ghostrunner »

Jocephus wrote:
IMADreamer wrote:

See I always thought GnR was really the F you to hair bands.
Image
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Almost posted that too, though to me "hair band" is more like a catch-all term for pop-metal - Poison, Winger, Warrant and that ilk.

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Re: Round 1: "Atlantic City" vs "The Man Who Sold..." *CLOSE

Post by BottenFieldofDreams »

Can some Nirvana grunge EDM, please?

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